As prices of digital cameras fall, image quality improves and ease of use increases, more and more consumers will use electronic digital cameras to fill their image capturing needs. Digital electronic cameras offer many benefits. However, they also present some difficulties. In particular, obtaining high quality prints from electronic digital cameras can be difficult.
There are many methods for printing images from electronic cameras. Image files may be transferred to a computer via physically transferring a memory card or by a data link between the computer and the camera. Once the image resides in the memory of the computer, a computer program can be used to print the images on a local printer. Also, a computer may use a modem to transfer images over the phone lines or other communication network to a remote photofinisher wherein images may be printed. While the foregoing methods can be used to obtain prints from the digital image files, they are often time consuming and can often require complex use of a computer.
Another method of getting hard copy prints from digital image files captured by an electronic digital camera is to transfer the digital image files directly to a printer via transferring a memory card or by a data link between the printer and the camera. This approach may have equal appeal according to ease of use, but the quality of the print is limited to the print quality of the local printer. Additionally, the consumer is forced to maintain the printer.
Digital images may also be printed at a retail kiosk where the digital image files are transferred to an internal computer or to a printer by physically transferring the memory card or by transferring the digital data by a data link between the kiosk and camera. The utility of the kiosk is limited by its physical location, thus requiring a specific time for the consumer to access these machines which are typically only accessible during business hours.
As described in commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/004,046 filed Jan. 7, 1998 entitled “NETWORK CONFIGURATION FILE FOR AUTOMATICALLY TRANSMITTING IMAGES FROM AN ELECTRONIC STILL CAMERA” to Ward et. al., the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference, there exists in the prior art digital electronic cameras that have built-in communication modems. These cameras may be used to send digital image files directly to a photofinisher. However, the camera must be connected to the transmission line for the duration of the transfer of the digital image files, and is of course out of service as a portable image capture device during this time period.
As described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,159 “ELECTRONIC STILL CAMERA WITH PROGRAMMABLE TRANSMISSION CAPABILITY” to Parulski et. al., the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference, there also exists in the prior art cellular phones with built-in camera modules. The cellular modems in these phones may be used for transferring digital image files to a receiver.
The present invention provides a simple and economic solution to the problems of the prior art by providing a digital camera system which allows for automatically transferring digital image data, which is simple in construction and easy to use, and which allows digital prints to be automatically printed by a service provider, and for reprints to be conveniently re-ordered by the user.